Packaging and Sending a Purchase Order

Owned by Jaime (she/her/hers) McAllister-Grande (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 18, 2019 by Daryl BooneVersion comment
4 min read

Packaging Defined

After creation, a Purchase order line (POL) can be sent to a vendor immediately, or it can be Packaged, meaning that it will be collected along with other PO Lines sharing certain values into a grouping called a Purchase Order.  

The Purchase Order will be sent overnight, and will include all the individual PO lines and, if sent to the vendor, will list each PO line order separately. In a sense, the PO is structured like an invoice; wherein the PO Lines are the line-items.

Requirement for Packaging: Common Values

Packaging is possible only for groups of purchase order lines that share common values.  

POL values that have to be in common for Packaging: 

  • Vendor account
  • Owner
  • Currency
  • Continuity – One-time/continuous
  • Acquisition method
  • Source type (a value in the POL/Additional info section): the way the POL was created (either Manual entry or Import EOD)


Types of Packaging: Manual or Auto

Purchase order lines can go through either Manual packaging or Auto packaging, based upon what steps were taken during their creation:

Selecting......Results inDetailsThis can be useful in these kinds of cases

Save and Continue

  • Manual Packaging

with the Manual packaging field CHECKED during POL creation

(located in the PO Line details section on the summary tab)


 

Manual packaging

POLs in Manual packaging, require an operator to pick and choose which POLs to package together into a PO via Acquisitions > Purchase Order > Package

  1. If you would like to choose which POLs to send in one communication to the vendor for multiple orders.

  2. If you would like to choose a Ship to and/or Bill to Library/Unit address on the order communication that differs from the default values.

  3. If you would like to gather all the orders together into a single PO and then use that PO number to call up and populate the PO line items on an invoice.

    This would work well for orders that do not have to be sent to a vendor and are not loaded electronically (EOD), such as approvals, or purchases on a vendor system.

    • See instructions below.

Save and Continue

with the Manual packaging field NOT checked during POL creation

 

Auto packaging

ONLY IF the required values are in common* (see list above), PO lines will be packaged together automatically into a single PO. Packaging will occur as an automated process at a set time each night

Note: If more than one fund is used in a POL, the POL will automatically move to Manual packaging

The PO's will be sent to vendors via Order list letters (in the form of an attachment to an email or EDI)

 

Order Now

regardless of whether Manual packaging field is checked

Auto packaging

 

Will initiate an Order list letter to be sent to the vendor immediately.

If you would like to send the order immediately

 

 

Manually Package POLs into a PO

  • Go to Acquisitions > Purchase Order > Package,

or

  • Click the task Order Lines - packaging in the Tasks List, in the persistent menu, and select the check box to the left of each PO line you want to include in the PO.

Next:

  1. Click Create New PO. The PO Summary screen will display. 
  2. If you want to change the Ship to or Bill to address at this point, choose the alternate address from the drop down menu in the Library section
  3. The selected PO lines will packaged into a PO 
  4. Click Save and Continue (not Save, which is the default) on the PO Summary tab. An Order list letter (in the form of an attachment to an email) is immediately sent to the vendor.
    • The status of the PO line and PO at this point should be Sent for one-time orders
    • The status of the PO should be Sent and the status of the PO line should be Waiting for Renewal for continuous orders at this point.


If you click Save above instead of Save and Continue, it will keep the PO In review. The status of the PO line will be Ready and the PO will be In Review.

To fix this:

  1. Look up the PO or PO line in the search bar using the Order Line search type. If you don't know the PO/POL number, use the Titles search type, then click on the number next to Orders once you find the record and find correct order.
  2. Click on the status of the PO and edit it. If you just click on the PO number it will only let you look at it but not edit it.
  3. Now click on Save and Continue. The PO will be sent and the status will change to Sent (or Closed if the POLs have already been fully received and invoiced) for both the PO and PO lines.


For instructions on how to manually add PO lines to an existing PO, see Reviewing Purchase Order lines and Purchase orders.



Order Transmission Method

Your Vendor code and Account will determine whether the Purchase Order will be sent via email or EDI.

For more details, see:

 

Order Status

After an order has been sent to the Vendor, the Order status will be:

One-time orders: Sent

One time orders that have been received but not yet invoiced will have the status Waiting for Invoice


Continuous orders: Waiting for Renewal

Continuous orders remain in the status Waiting for Renewal until they are closed.


See POL Statuses for more information.